


Rain Check

by Allatariel



Series: Unfinished Tales [1]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Gen, Siblings
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-20
Updated: 2020-03-20
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:15:24
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,523
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23233084
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Allatariel/pseuds/Allatariel
Summary: A rainy summer day in the childhood home of the Black sisters sometime in the early 1960s.
Relationships: Bellatrix Black Lestrange & Narcissa Black Malfoy & Andromeda Black Tonks
Series: Unfinished Tales [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1670404
Kudos: 2





	Rain Check

**Author's Note:**

> Comments and constructive criticism always more than welcomed and so greatly appreciated! Any advice on tagging would be amazing.

A little girl no more than six years old sat on her heels in the cushioned bay window of a large, well appointed but comfortable family room. She was slumped forward, her elbow braced on the sill propping her head up as she stared glumly out the rain-streaked window at the sodden late summer grass she wished she were running over right now. She absently twirled the end of one long black braid with her free hand, the other trailing down her back past the waistband of her just-below-the-knee length pedal-pusher blue jeans, contrasting sharply with the stark white of her round-collared blouse. Her black eyes moved slowly from limb to limb of the trees she had planned on climbing today before the sky had opened up and quite literally rained on her parade. She sighed heavily and flopped around onto her stomach, burying her face in a pillow. She turned her head to look over the room when she heard the scratching of pencil on paper. Across the room at a desk that was far too large for her knelt a little white-blonde haired girl of about three and a half. She wore a sage green sundress and a very determined expression as her little fist moved the pencil over the paper she had before her.

“What’re you drawing, Cissy?” the black haired girl asked as she got up and walked over to where the younger girl sat.

“Pi’ture for Sev’rus, Bella,” Cissy told her without looking up as Bella came to a stop next to her and looked down at the picture she was drawing of two stick figures holding hands. “This’s me,” she pointed to the stick figure with a crooked triangle making the body and a big lopsided oval haloing the head and hanging down past the bottom of the triangle dress, “an’ tha’s Sev’rus,” and she turned her pale silver eyes up to look at her sister as she pointed to the other stick figure, the one with the short spiky lines coming out of the head at all angles. “I’ so he won’ forget ‘bout me when he’s not here.” She explained as she turned back to the drawing and began adding a sun and some other background scenery. Bella’s eyes focused on her little sister’s long platinum hair, raising her hand to brush over the neatly pulled back top portion and down the wavy free-flowing mass below.

“Every day Mum braids my hair up tight and Rod and Stan are always pulling on them…” Bella commented absently as she stared mesmerized at the loose strands between her fingers.

“Mum only braids it tightly so she won’t have to spend hours brushing it out at night, Bellatrix.” A third girl just over nine years old in a white blouse and red seersucker stripe skirt teased Bellatrix as she entered the room carrying a life-like infant doll in a basket hung on the crook of her arm. She came up behind the chair Cissy was perched on next to Bellatrix and tugged gently at one of her black braids saying, “And I’ve seen you whip around and whack Rodolphus and Rabastan in the face with them a few times.”

“Stop it or I’ll whack you too, Andromeda!” Bellatrix snapped glaring back over her shoulder and hunkering down ready to spin. Andromeda held her hands up in mock defense and smirked, her smoky gray eyes flashing.

“It was a joke, Sis! Anyhow, I just came to let you know Daddy’s on the fire from work and wants to say hello, Narcissa talked to him first and was supposed to tell you.” Andromeda informed her.

“Narcissa, why didn’t you tell me?” Bellatrix asked a bit exasperatedly as she poked her up to this point oblivious little sister hard in the side and ran off out of the room the way Andromeda had entered.

“Hey!” Narcissa shot up to stand on the chair as she shrieked at Bellatrix’s retreating back. Andromeda placed a soothing hand on Narcissa’s head as she leaned against the back of the chair, her single dark blonde braid falling over her shoulder.

“Shh Cissa, Bella’s just having a bad day stuck up in the house.” She calmed her and then came around the chair to reach up and pull a tin of crayons out of the hutch with one hand as she set the basket on the floor next to the desk with the other. She then placed the tin on the desk next to Narcissa’s drawing.

“She’s bein’ mean,” Narcissa replied rubbing the spot on her side Bellatrix had just poked as Andromeda sat next to her on the chair and pulled her onto her lap.

“Well, you did forget to tell her about Daddy, but she didn’t have to poke you so hard.” Andromeda said as she slid the picture forward on the desk and looked at it.

“S’for Sev’rus, Dromy,” Narcissa explained as she reached for a soft green crayon and started to color in the triangle dress.

“You really miss him don’t you?” Andromeda asked distractedly, taking in the smiles and clasped hands of the stick figures. “I wish I could miss Lucius like that…three years and we’ve never even met!” She sighed and hugged Narcissa who patted her sister’s hand where it rested on her tummy with her free hand and reached for another crayon with her other hand. Andromeda glanced down at the baby doll in the basket, “I guess he’s in France again, Lucius always sends another new doll when he’s visiting his grandparents. I hope he and his cousins are having a good time.” She watched her sister finish coloring the sun yellow and then reach for a dark green crayon. Narcissa turned to look Andromeda in the face and hold the crayon up to her.

“Dromy, help me write,” Narcissa asked expectantly.

“OK, what do you want to write?” She gently took the hand holding the crayon and guided it to the drawing above the stick figures.

“Narcissa loves Sev’rus for always,” She replied.

“Aww, that’s sweet,” Andromeda smiled and wrapped her hand around Narcissa’s smaller hand holding the green crayon and moved it through the letters. After the last ‘s’ was in place, Narcissa proceeded to color the grass with the same crayon and Andromeda picked out the palest yellow in the tin and began coloring the stick figure Narcissa’s oval of hair.

“Let’s set up the game in the window seat, Stan” Bellatrix said to a dark haired boy about her age wearing blue jeans and a short sleeve green plaid button-up shirt as they entered the room and she pulled him by the hand towards the window seat. A few paces behind them another boy wearing blue jeans and the same shirt in red plaid, with the same dark hair and features as the first boy but about a year older walked in and stopped next to Andromeda and Narcissa.

“Hi, Andromeda,” He said with a dreamy look on his face.

“Hello, Roddy,” Andromeda replied with the edge of a long suffering sigh and continued coloring without looking up. Rodolphus grimaced momentarily at her use of the childish nickname but plowed ahead unfazed, quickly regaining his love-struck expression.

“You look lovely today,” He told her with cloying sweetness as he leaned on his elbow against the desk to angle an unavailingly charming glance at her. Andromeda looked up at him then, her expression of forbearing exasperation as equally wasted on him.

“I haven’t changed at all since yesterday, Roddy, but thank you,” She responded, trying to be considerate of his feelings yet not encourage him, and returned to her coloring.

Bellatrix looked up from across the room in the window seat with Rabastan where she was setting out the antique golden gobstones and rolled her eyes at her companion while jerking her thumb in the direction of their respective siblings. Rabastan snickered slightly and rolled his eyes back at her, then leaned over to whisper in her ear.

“Should we save your sister from my brother?” he asked her conspiratorially.

“I was just about to…” Bellatrix trailed off quietly and then called across the room to her beleaguered sister, “Dromy!” Andromeda looked over at her sister beseechingly, Rodolphus still hovering at her opposite side. “I almost forgot, Mum wanted to see you in the kitchen,” she finished, smirking slightly as her sister sighed in relief then mouthed the words 'thank you' to her in reply. 

Andromeda turned her head back to kiss Narcissa's temple and as she placed the pale yellow crayon back in the tin she whispered in Narcissa's ear, “I've got to get up now, Cissa, but I'll be back in a few minutes, alright?” Narcissa nodded in reply and stopped coloring as her sister shifted her from her lap to standing on the chair as Andromeda slid of the chair and stood up. Andromeda patted Narcissa on the head softly as she knelt to resume coloring.

“If you would excuse me, Roddy,” She addressed him evenly before moving past him and out of the room just faster than he could react.

**Author's Note:**

> _I last updated this story in July of 2005._


End file.
